Every year at Christmastime it is a common practice at schools and in churches to perform the Christmas story. All you need is someone to act as Mary, Joseph, three wise men, shepherds, angels, Herod and of course the baby Jesus.
In the same manner for Jews. In memory of the Exodus, Jews has always performed, and still perform, this story at Easter time. All They need is someone to act as YHWH, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Joshua, Egyptian Pharaoh and of course Israel. Now, there were 600,000 Israelites who left Egypt. This could easily be solved by noticing that when God spoke to Israel in their sacred texts, he often called them Jacob (or James if you want). This Jacob, who that the prophets spoke about that often would not listen to God, were all the Israelites – or Israel.
There was another problem. The Tanakh was considered as very sacred texts. It was not allowed to mention the name of YHWH, and since the performance had to be done theatrical it could in some circles be seen as blasphemous. A good solution to this problem could be to give the characters new names. In this way, the performance also could be given greater theatrical freedom.
And so Moses became Peter (Cephas), Aaron became Andrew, Joshua became John, Miriam became Maria, Israel became Jacob (James) and YHWH became Jesus (YHWH saves).
This is the Lord as the light of the world. This is the Lord as the road. This is the Lord as the shepherd.
In my next post I will try to tell this story of Exodus through Christian glasses.
(Again, my intention is not to offend anyone but to point on a different way to understand the origins of texts we in the West know as Christians texts).
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
The Angel of God asks Moses to go to Pharaoh and then lead his people (Isarel) out of Egypt. But Moses has doubts: ”Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, The Lord did not appear to you?”
The Angel of the Lord then gave Moses a magic staff and showed Moses a miracle when his hand withered. But Moses doubted still: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Luke 5,8: When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken
So the angel of the Lord then gave Moses his brother Aaron as a helper.
After This Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law(not mother-in law) and said to him: “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Short story: The angel of the Lord sent Moses and Aaron to Egypt to institute the very first Passover. As we know, Jesus sent two disciples to Jerusalem with same mission.
The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.”
This is important! The text here says that Jacob is the son of God. If both Jesus and Jacob are sons of God, then they some way have to be brothers. James, the Lord’s brother!
The Lord would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that the Lord could show his greatness through miracles. Among other The Lord should make the Nile into blood (water into wine).
We now skip to the Passover meal.
At the first Easter Night the Lord performed the last sign in Egypt. While the Jews ate their Passover meal, the Lord sent “the destroyer” out to kill every firstborn child in houses that were not marked with a sign. The sign that should distinguish between the Israelites and the Egyptians was blood smeared on the doorposts. The sign of a kiss was ment to distinguish Jesus from the disciples.
This nightmare was enough for the Pharaoh. Now he could not longer deny Jacob departure from Egypt. The very next day – which is a Sabbath in the Jewish Passover tradition – YHWH set “the paralyzed man” free. “Your sins are forgiven, get up, take your mat and go home.” The journey out of Egypt can begin.
Jesus, Peter, Andrew, John, James and Mary could begin their journey in to the wilderness, where Jesus walks on the water and gives bread to the hungry, as an allegory of Exodus.
At some point, this old story gets a Passion narrative. The Passion story is mainly derived from the Books of Kings, but became interwoven in/with this story. But the resurrection and the forty days is from the Exodus.
Moses did something crucial to his fate when he struck his staff on the rock at Horeb in Massah and Meribah. This story is told twice in the Pentateuch. Once in Exodus 17, and once in Numbers 20. In the Exodus Moses beats the rock once with his staff. In the Numbers twice. How many times did he actually hit the rock? Once or twice? Since the number is not equal it was perhaps just as well to say that Moses struck the rock a total of three times.
Anyway, this was crucial to Moses: But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Moses would not be allowed to lead the Israelites into the land flowing with milk and honey. This was a task the Lord should entrust to Joshua.
We see this parallel in John: Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me? He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him,”Follow me!”
Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered,”If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said,”If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?
Finally we are at the resurrection and the connection between the Pentateuch, the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings.
Paul explains the resurrection in the Corinthians.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
This is nothing more than an expansion of who the Lord appeared to after he came down on Mount Sinai on the third day in Exodus 19.
1. In Exodus 19, the Lord reveals himself on the third day to Moses – Cephas/Peter.
2. Next time the Lord appears is in Exodus 24, when the Lord reveals himself to seventy of the elders of Israel. Who then were the seventy? From Exodus 1: The descendants of Jacob(In Egypt) numbered seventy. The descendants of Jacob could (for the first Christians) be numbered as the seventy elders, or the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact, in the story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish, the number of disciples are now seven. But these seven disciples refer to the same incident. Moses received 613 laws on Mount Sinai. Peter caught 613/4 = 153 fish.
3. Third we have: the five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. This comes from Deuteronomy 5:23-26: ‘When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. 24 And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them. 25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer. 26 For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?’
How many were the leaders of the tribes? The leaders of the tribes was leaders for thousand, one hundred, fifty and ten. 1000 + 100 + 50 +10 = 1160 This is of course the highest estimate. 600,000 Israelites left Egypt. Then it is just a matter of math. 600.000/1160 = 517 !
There must have been more than 517 leaders of the tribes.
4. Finally the Lord appeared to all the Israelites, which is the same as Jacob.
Leviticus 9: On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel(…)Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
The Lord consumed the burnt offering on the altar. Could a spirit do such a thing?
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
moose said
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
No it wasn’t. Show me where in the whole OT where the name of Jesus/Joshua/Jeshua was mentioned as being..
Divine?
Son of God?
God?
The Saviour of the Jews or mankind?
He wasn’t even called ‘Immanuel’ by Mary and now recent publications of the bible are now saying the Angel of the Lord appeared to Mary to tell her about the birth and he shall be called…JESUS!
So future generations will say there you are, its says in the bible/word of God that he was named JESUS! So it must be true etc!
I hate this sort of make believe stuff myself!
BTW there was never 600,000 Jewish Slaves in Egypt as someone calculated that would form a 10 mile queue of 100 people across. Plus the Israeli Governement commissioned a team of Archeologists to go and find the deeds to the land of Canaan aka Israel by trying to trace the journey of all those tens of thousands of Jews from Egypt and we read that all the original generations all died in the wilderness because they worshipped the Golden Calf and so it was only second generation Jews and others that went onwards. Either way, not one trinket, not one bone, not one pot or pan was found on the way. Its why many people now dispute the whole OT narrative and more likely to have been a small group of people moving from place to place that were drunk with a fertile imagination with nothing better to do.
Most intelligent people that have REALLY thought about all the OT and NT can now see it as a fairy tale and an allergory which is being charitable.
To think how many millions have died by believing all that stuff to be literally true when they need not have done so. The Jewish people have less right to any of that area in the middle east, than the Palestinians themselves. Fighting and keeping territory that doesn’t belong to them is one of the greatest injustices of all time. And the idiots keep getting elected by saying they won’t share it with anybody!
In the beginning there was fairy tales, myths and lies and grown ups should leave it with the Father Christmases and Leprocauns!
Christmas and Easter day are both myth days.
Sorry!
moose said
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
From Midrash we know that there was another name for this rock that followed the Israelites through the wilderness – Miriam’s Well!
“The description in Num. 20 of the death of Miriam is immediately followed by the episode of the Waters of Meribah: “Miriam died there […] The community was without water” (vv. 1–2). The Rabbis learn from this juxtaposition that Miriam’s death resulted in the dearth of water; they accredited to her the existence of the well that accompanied the Israelites on their wanderings in the wilderness and provided them with drinking water. The well, according to the Rabbis, was one of the things created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight (M Avot5:6); they depict it as a wondrous well that flowed from itself, like a rock full of holes (T ** you do not have permission to see this link ** 3:11). The well is portrayed in a mural in the Dura Europus synagogue (that was destroyed in the third century CE), in which we see Miriam’s Well, with streams of water issuing forth to each of the tents of the twelve tribes of Israel.”
And there it is, maybe? Miriam the mother ot the rock that followed Israel – Mary the mother of Jesus?
BDEhrman
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